Under the command of Major Joseph H. LaMotte, the 1st U.S. Army Infantry Regiment’s
Companies C and E founded the fort in 1852 as Fort Riley in honor of 1st Infantry
commander Bennett C. Riley. He asked it be renamed Fort Clark after the late Major
John B. Clark, who served in the Mexican War. The strategic location, leased from
landowner Samuel A. Maverick, helped the fort protect the Mexican border and the
military road to El Paso, as well as defend the area against Indian raids. The
near-by town of Brackettville grew up as a supply settlement for the fort. In 1854,
two companies of the Texas Rangers joined the U.S. Infantry during the raised
tensions with local Native American groups.

After Texas seceded in 1861 at the outset of the Civil War, the 3rd U.S. Infantry at
Fort Clark surrendered the post to the Provisional Army of Texas. For a year, the
2nd Texas Mounted Rifles‘ Companies C and H occupied the fort. After Confederate
troops were withdrawn in 1862, the fort remained empty until the occupation of 4th
U.S. Cavalry in 1866.

The 1870s brought a construction project for new limestone buildings, including
quarters for 200 soldiers, and in 1884 Samuel A. Maverick’s widow Mary sold the land
to the government. Around this time, Black Seminole scouts, the 4th U.S. Cavalry,
and several mounted African-American regiments, informally called buffalo soldiers,
began serving Fort Clark, defending Texas against Indian raids from Mexico. In 1873,
Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie led a raid resulting in the death of nineteen warriors and
the capture of forty prisoners. Three years later Mackenzie’s successor Lt. Col.
William Rufus “Pecos Bill” Shafter campaigned against Indian raiders along the
border, bringing order by the end of the decade.

A new building and expansion project began in the 1880s and yet again during World
War I. Over the years, the fort garrisoned almost all U.S. Cavalry Regiments and
numerous U.S. Infantries, becoming home to the 5th U.S. Cavalry from 1920 through
1941 and its commander Col. George S. Patton, Jr. in 1938. By World War II, Fort
Clark became a training facility for soldiers deployed to the Pacific and the
European Theater, a guarding post for the Southern Pacific Railroad, and a German
prisoner of war camp. Since its main duty had been hosting horse-cavalry, the fort
closed after mechanization of the cavalry in 1944.

In 1946 the Texas Railway Equipment Company of Houston purchased the fort and later
opened a dude ranch for the tourist industry. In 1971 the North American Towns of
Texas bought the ranch and developed a private retirement community and historic
district.

Letters and letter books, diary, orders, financial reports, receipts, abstracts,
invoices, an inventory, and muster rolls comprise the Fort Clark Records, 1856-1881.
These documents concern communications between officers, accounts of trips to
Mexico, and other military post affairs and orders. The letter books written by 1st
Lt. Henry W. Closson (1856-1861) discusses lists of discharged soldiers, the
building of a hospital, wagon trains and teamsters, delivering goods to the Fort,
and orders from other forts, such as Forts Davis and Lancaster, for supplies. The
detailed 1856 inventory describes Fort Clark’s supplies, including many kinds of
tools, building supplies, medicines for people and horses, books and paper supplies,
as well as paints and varnishes. One abstract book and one letter book, primarily
concerning Fort Clark, also contains summaries of funds and provisions at Fort
Duncan (1860-1861) and letters for Forts Duncan, Taylor, and Pickens (1861).

Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the
National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe
Center’s “History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light project,” 2009-2011.